The Spy Who Haunted Me (Secret History Series #3) Book

Simon Green who penned the space opera Deathstalker series has turned his eye to urban fantasy and has a winner, I think, in the tales of his secret agent Shaman Bond a/k/a Eddie Drood. The Droods are a family of super secret agents who combat evil with the armor that encases them from a torc around their necks. Green has populated their world with all sorts of foul murderers, magical creatures, elfs, aliens, witches and spies. Eddie Drood, the grandson of the Matriarch of the clan Drood is one of the secret agents that risks his life to keep the world safe.

The novel start off with Drood assuming his namesake Shaman Bond in a plot to kill some ravens in the Tower of London, where we meet some of the odd villains and get a taste of the world. After Bond painlessly dispatches some of the co-conspirators, he returns to the family home for a super secret mission.

He is to journey to the home of an earlier secret agent -- The Independent Agent, who claims to have secrets about a traitor who is harming the Drood interests. The Independent Agent, who appears to be deathly ill, has asked Drood and 5 other special up and coming secret agents to travel the world figuring out various magical mysteries. The winner of the contest will be granted access to all of the Independent Agent's secrets.

The six agents are whisked around the world to face various bad guys including nasty aliens, a creature out of a Robert Louis Stevenson novel, a creature at the bottom of Loch Ness and others before a final confrontation at the end of the novel.

Green is a master of the colorful characters, battle scenes with armor, swords and beasties. I felt the novel was a tad too long -- one less bad beastie may have moved it along at a better clip, but overall it was a fun journey and Eddie Drood is a good character, who has not worn out his welcome in this household.